Ms Borne's office says the French app Olvid is more secure than popular messaging technologies such as WhatsApp. Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP
French policymakers have long been concerned about over-reliance on American technology. In the late 2000s, the state financed an attempt to create the French search engine Quaero and promoted domestic capabilities in semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
Olvid's website claims that it allows users to “free themselves from foreign decisions subject to extraterritorial laws” such as the America's Cloud Act, which forces US technology companies to give up data stored on foreign servers.
< p>This proposal was supported. created by several French investment programs and was the first messaging app to receive approval from ANSSI, the French cybersecurity agency.
Developed by Parisian cryptographers, Olvid claims to offer a higher level of security than competitors.
It encrypts metadata—information about users such as their name, profile picture, and what chats they're in—compared to apps that simply encrypt message content.
It also doesn't require a phone number or SIM card. Card to create an account, meaning users are at less risk of accounts being hacked.
The data is stored on the network of devices using it, rather than on central servers, making it more difficult from a legal perspective. law enforcement or potential hackers will not be able to access them.
Custom messaging applications have become widely used by governments because they are considered faster and more private than email.
Although the content of messaging apps Just like WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, meaning it can't be read by the company or anyone other than the sender and recipient, the company has access to other signals, such as which users are talking with each other.
WhatsApp, owned by Facebook's parent company Meta, is also considering advertising within the app. Olvid, on the contrary, claims that it is financed by part of the users who pay for the service.
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